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Post #1
Well I wanted to help the guys out who are interested in this stuff. I'm going to share my knowledge and help you guys to start with this hobby.
LEGALITY!! Metal detecting is illegal in loads of places so if you head out to an area where it's illegal to dig prepare yourself!!
Wear camouflaged clothing, dig as quiet as you can and if you get caught stay friendly, you might get away with a warning.
In Germany it's always illegal to dig unless you have a permit, the fines are really high you can even end up in jail...
I have dug in Germany but it's at your own risk!
Equipment:
Metal detector:
First of all you need a metal detector I recommend using a Garrett ACE 250 or a Garrett Euro Ace,
these two metal detectors are rather cheap (250-300$) and easy to use but most of all they work!
Digging equipment:
I mostly use a hand shovel, a hand saw can come in very handy to cut through tree roots in your digging area.
Clothing:
Whatever you want, gloves are a must though unless you like blisters on ye fingers.
Camouflaged clothing can be handy if you are digging illegal.
UXO's ( Un-exploded ordinance)
by lorden
Don't be careless guys, always do research on places before you go metal detecting. 70 year old mines can, and in most cases, are, still functioning. They're soldiers that never realized the war was over. They're not like the movies either, 95% of landmines you will never see until you step on them, the other 5% have been revealed by erosion or rain washing them away, which means even areas that aren't minefields, but downhill from them, can have mines that were washed away, which will still be active most of the time.
I guess the best way to show what I mean is this picture. A burnt-off, mostly barren area would easily be the best place to see a mine, but you still can't see shit in this image. It's somewhat low quality, but that's pretty much how your vision will be if you're only paying attention to your metal detector.
There weren't many made in WW2, but there are low-metal mines too, which means your detector wouldn't even detect it. So the only real advice I can give is to do your research, and leave the area, on the exact same path you came, as soon as you see any kind of mine indicators. The most obvious ones are keychain looking objects with 30+ arming pins on them, and metal tubes, sort of looking like a disposable launcher, like a panzerfaust, but wider. They were used to contain mines. Less obvious things include metal or wooden spools, used for tripwires, or individual arming pins. Everything else will just look like normal wartime junk, especially after rust and such takes their toll on them, so there's no real point in describing them. Just be safe guys!
Research
The most important step of all is research, its not likely that you are going to find interesting items without researching first.
You can use all kind of media for this, books, the internet and old people who might know something.
For my trip to Schönberg (http://www.facepunch.com/threads/1123012) I mostly used the internet, google maps is also a good idea to look at
if you are looking for military relics you best search for battle maps of some kind. They hold loads of information and can really help you out.
Here is one of the maps I found for my Schönberg trip:
If you have finally found the location where you want to dig how do you start?
Simple, look for strange pits or dug outs in the landscape even after 70 years you can still see the fox holes and the trenches
those are a good place to start.
Example:
Also urundeadmom wanted to add this:
Its also important to look for trees, like for example if you have a hill that has only 1/2 meeter high grass, and you find a large group of young trees growing somewhere, that means that the soil has been moved around for a trench or bunker, its most likely a trench, several times i have seen areas that have a about 20 m long line of young maybe 3-4 m high trees that was once a trench.
That and soil type is important,
The best places to look are wet marsh like areas with A LOT of mud, the mud creates a almost oxygen proof seal that preserves items incredibly well. Regular dirt will hold items considerably worse with a lot of oxidization and rust occurring. Sand and dirt-sand mixes are the worst with items quickly deteriorating and no noticeable markings left on them.
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Here are some things you could find:
Russia is the place to be for WW2 related finds, check this out:
These where all found on one single trip! (not by me)
Cleaning your items:
Most of the time it's enough to gently brush the rust of, you can treat your finds to prevent more rust forming.
If you have a really rusty item that is still hard and not rotten you can use a solution of oxalic acid to remove the rust,
this again is at your own risk, you can destroy your item.
If you do it correctly it can really look good though:
Before
After
Clips:
This guy is not careful enough but his finds are nice.
TOP FINDS: (These are finds of many different people.)
Tips:
-Always dig around the signal! You don't want to stick your shovel into a grenade or bomb and
you don't want to damage the items you dig up.
-Please fill up your holes after you dig and also don't leave any garbage behind.
-If you find an explosive don't move it, leave it be and call the bomb squad/police.
-If you don't find anything don't worry keep on searching you'll find stuff eventually.
-Digging is really exhausting, always bring enough food and water.
In this thread you can post your finds, ask questions etc...
You can ask me anything you want!
If anyone wants to add something to the op just pm me.
You can also ask me anything you want to know.
I think that's it for now.
I had no idea where to post this so I just posted it in the general discussion section.
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I tried to pay a prostitute for a hug, but she turned me down because I'm a huge faggot.
July 2010
2,482 Posts
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First photos are not working.
I have found some parachute pieces(I think) and flasks. Nothing else. :(
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I tried to pay a prostitute for a hug, but she turned me down because I'm a huge faggot.
July 2010
2,482 Posts
Fixed?
Keep on searching you'll find cool shit!
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I found some pottery around my house, but that's not as exciting as ww2 helmets etc. Cool finds man!
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HATE SPEECH SHOULD BE LEGAL NO EXCEPTIONS - I AM RIGHT 100% OF THE TIME AND DEFEND POINTS LIKE A RABID NECKBEARD
May 2008
13,191 Posts
In your picture where you have all of the relics you found in a pile, what are those items just below the red canteen?
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I tried to pay a prostitute for a hug, but she turned me down because I'm a huge faggot.
July 2010
2,482 Posts
Mortar tails like the ones ate the bottom of the image.
Those stack of relics are not mine btw, edited the op.
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Looks like mortar tails.
Ninjas.
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This looks great.
What are some really good places to search? Germany, Russia? Where.
EDIT:
What are laws on this? Are you allowed to bring half a rusty gun on a plane? And im guessing there are no laws on helmets, medals and such.
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I tried to pay a prostitute for a hug, but she turned me down because I'm a huge faggot.
July 2010
2,482 Posts
Well eastern Germany and Russia are good places to search, Belgium is also really good because the Battle of the Bulge happened here.
In Germany the laws are very strict if you are caught digging they can throw you in jail on grave robbing charges. About weapons it depends on what the weapon laws in your country are, here in Belgium you can keep your rusty weapons because they don't work anymore it all depends.
Helmets and medals are no problem.
If you want to take weapons back with you you have to go to a gun store/ smith to officially deactivate them with certificate and then you can probably take them with you.
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It's not the greatest of ideas to try and restore them yourself you might risk damaging them even more.
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I tried to pay a prostitute for a hug, but she turned me down because I'm a huge faggot.
July 2010
2,482 Posts
Yeah, you need to be careful. Generally it's enough to clean of the rust with a soft brush.
You know in Pawnstars they say never clean up an item? It only counts for antique items that are not in relic state, relic state items are mostly worthless and it doesn't matter if you clean them or not the value doesn't go up or down. Just never clean something with a steel brush that's just stupid.
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You really need to look at a map, and find areas where major battles happened, and just go in those places. Also the quality of the soil is important because it depends on the turn out of your dig. Also on a side not, if you find any form of identification or the such, Dog tags, Russian capsules, ect.. you are really going to want to give those to the correct authorities, its important to remember the dead and that they have fought for us.
I was once dinging on a sight about 100km outside former Stalingrad. (I was there with some friends i was visiting) We were digging out an old German Anti tank (AT) trench, inside we found massive amounts of ammunition and the such, but worst of all we found what I counted to be about 4 or 5 groups of bones, most were in small clusters, with the German identification pieces close to them, we on my way back to Dresden (Germany) I turned them into the German detachment of police that work to find the proper homes for these things the (DNHZWK)
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I tried to pay a prostitute for a hug, but she turned me down because I'm a huge faggot.
July 2010
2,482 Posts
I would love to go digging in Russia...
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I'm only 16 but when I get a bit older I'm gonna do this.
It's on my bucket list.
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The most I found was mayby some pottery and a bb gun from the 70's
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My grandfather and his brother used to help with finding the soldiers who went MIA or were burried on the field durring the winter war, But it's quite dangerous since the in certain parts of finland there's still has active mines and other explosive devices that could go off at any second.
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I was at a combat engineer training weekend up in Petawawa, and we got to test the new metal detectors the CF are phasing in for use with the current model. It's pretty fun to use them, but you really have to be careful when using them.
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I tried to pay a prostitute for a hug, but she turned me down because I'm a huge faggot.
July 2010
2,482 Posts
Why wait when you can start right now?
Edited:
What were you searching for? Mines?
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All me and my friend ever dug up was some metal piping in the back and front yard of my house.
But I guess America doesn't have the sort of history that leaves much metal strewn about.
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I tried to pay a prostitute for a hug, but she turned me down because I'm a huge faggot.
July 2010
2,482 Posts
What about the civil war?
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Well mine shells filled with concrete, really. Same weight and metal content as a regular mine, just minus the explosives.
Oh, and we tested for rubber mines as well, but you can't detect those (obviously), so you had to be extra vigilant.
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True, But I live in south Texas which was very far away from the fighting.
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I tried to pay a prostitute for a hug, but she turned me down because I'm a huge faggot.
July 2010
2,482 Posts
Cool, how deep could the metal detector go?Well mine shells filled with concrete, really. Same weight and metal content as a regular mine, just minus the explosives. Oh, and we tested for rubber mines as well, but you can't detect those (obviously), so you had to be extra vigilant.
Edited:
Yeah that's true...
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are you a terrorist?
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I tried to pay a prostitute for a hug, but she turned me down because I'm a huge faggot.
July 2010
2,482 Posts
Yeah I blow myself up in the name of Allah almost every day.
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I live on what was once a huge American Civil War hotspot. We find musketballs and forks and shit all the time, and when they were digging up the woods behind us we went detecting and found a confederate saber. Always nice to have a confederate obsessed history nut for a neighbor when you live in Virginia.
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I tried to pay a prostitute for a hug, but she turned me down because I'm a huge faggot.
July 2010
2,482 Posts
You should post some pictures, I would love to see them!
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Would love to see that sabre, I collect swords.
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Looks very interesting, i know what I'm doing if I ever go to russia or germany. Also I derped when I saw the mp44's i was like "Where are the stocks?" then realized after 60 years in the ground the stocks have been broken down and absorbed back into the earth.
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Yeah its amazing, but sad too. The ground there is almost all like that perfect mud substance, items were amazingly preserved. grenades with original color on them, a unfired panzerfaust that still had that yellowish tint. Amazing stuff really.
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no one takes the fight to america anymore.
I don't have anything to go look at.
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My dad metal detects, we have too much coins in this house, but i think the one he is most proud of is a golden Celtic.
He's also told me once that someone he was with dug up a landmine so this guy hit it with his shovel before throwing it into an adjacent river.
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I wanna do some relic hunting, but there really isn't much to find in Michigan. There weren't that many battles here. Luckily, I live in a village that was founded in the early 1800's so there's bound to be something in the woods, even though they may not be war relics.
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I live in South Carolina where the first shots of the Civil War were fired and the State that played a crucial role in the Revolutionary War.
I know damn well I could find some neat stuff.
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Thanks OP.
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That's so cool, I wish I lived in a country that has been ravaged by war in the past
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Texas Revolution.
Goliad has shit coming up from the battle there all the time. I remember once they found a mexican cannon buried under there
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I live in Arizona.
There ain't shit out here.
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I tried to pay a prostitute for a hug, but she turned me down because I'm a huge faggot.
July 2010
2,482 Posts
Damn, you should definitely go out and search!I live in South Carolina where the first shots of the Civil War were fired and the State that played a crucial role in the Revolutionary War.
I know damn well I could find some neat stuff.
Should I post some of the most amazing ww2 finds in the op?
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Yes! i love looking over those all the time!
Edited:
not to be a joykill, but no you dont, its not pleasant, i lived in Slovenia for a while, and the effects of the war are still present, and the old communist system is still visible even though it disbanded around 30 years ago.
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